Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Salesmen Don't Have to Wear Plaid: Selling without selling out -- The 1950s: When Even X-Acto Blades Were Dull -- "What?! We Don't Have to Suck?!" -- The Empire Strikes Back -- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Hack -- Chapter 2: A Sharp Pencil Works Best: Some thoughts on getting started -- Why Nobody Ever Chooses Brand X -- Staring at Your Partner's Shoes -- Why the Creative Process is Exactly like washing a Pig -- The Sudden Cessation of Stupidity -- It's all about the Benjamins -- Brand = Adjective -- Simple = Good -- Before you Put Pen to Paper -- Start by examining the current positioning of your product -- Get to know your client's business as well as you can -- On the other hand, there's value in staying stupid -- Get to know the client's customers as well as you can -- Ask to see the entire file of the client's previous work -- Make sure what you have to say matters -- Insist on a tight strategy -- The final strategy should be simple -- Question the brief -- Testing strategy is better than testing executions -- Listen to customers talk -- Scan the places where your work will appear -- Read the awards books -- study the sites -- Look at the competitors' advertising -- Chapter 3: A Clean Sheet of Paper: Coming up with an idea-the broad strokes -- Saying the Right thing the Right Way -- Remember, you have two problems to solve: the client's and yours -- Find the central human truth about your product -- "Tell the truth and run." -- Identify and leverage the central conflicts within your client's company or category -- A Few Words on Authenticity -- Try the competitor's product -- Pose the problem as a question -- Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions -- Ask yourself what would make you want to buy the product.

Dramatize the benefit -- Avoid style -- focus on substance -- Find a villain -- Make the claim in your ad something that is incontestable -- Try some of these "strategy starters" and see if ideas start to form -- Get Something, Anything, on Paper -- First, say it straight. Then say it great -- Restate the strategy and put some spin on it -- Put the pill inside the baloney, not next to it -- What's the mood you want your reader or viewer to feel? -- Stare at a picture that has the emotion of the ad you want to do -- Let your subconscious mind do it -- Try writing down words from the product's category -- "Embrace the suck." -- Allow yourself to come up with terrible ideas -- Allow your partner to come up with terrible ideas -- Share your ideas with your partner, even the kinda dumb half-formed ones -- Spend some time away from your partner, thinking on your own -- Come up with a lot of ideas. Cover the wall -- Quick sketches of your ideas are all you need during the creative process -- Tack the best ideas on the wall -- Write. Don't talk. Write -- Write hot. Edit cold -- Once you get on a streak, ride it -- Feed a baby idea lots of milk and burp it regularly -- Does a medium lend itself to your message? -- Does the technology lend itself to your message? -- If it makes you laugh out loud, make it work. Somehow -- Try something naughty. Or provocative -- Try doing something counterintuitive with a medium -- If you have to do an ad, does it have to be a flat page? -- Try not to look like, or act like, or sound like, or be like an ad -- "Do I have to Draw you a Picture?" -- "Do I want to write a letter or send a postcard?" -- See what it looks like to solve it entirely with the visual -- Coax an interesting visual out of your product -- Get the visual clichés out of your system right away -- Show, don't tell -- Saying isn't the same as being.

"The Reverse Side also has a Reverse Side." -- When everybody else is zigging, you should zag -- Consider the opposite of your product -- Avoid the formula of saying one thing and showing another -- Move back and forth between wide-open, blue-sky thinking and critical analysis -- Make sure you don't get stuck always doing the ol' exaggeration thing -- Interpret the problem using different mental processes -- Put on different thinking caps -- Whenever you can, go for an absolute -- Metaphors must've been invented for advertising -- "Wit invites participation." -- The wisdom of knock-knock jokes -- Don't set out to be funny. Set out to be interesting -- Simple = Good, Part II -- "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" -- Simple is hard to miss -- Simple is bigger -- Simple is easier to remember -- Simple breaks through advertising clutter -- Keep paring away until you have the essence of your ad -- A Few words about Outdoor. (Three would be Ideal, Actually.) -- Billboards, banner ads, posters, 15-second TV-they all force you to be simple -- Outdoor is a great place to get outrageous -- Your outdoor must delight people -- A Few Things Before we break for Lunch -- Two questions to help you gauge the size of an idea -- Learn to recognize big ideas when you have them -- Big ideas transcend strategy -- Don't keep runnin' after you catch the bus -- Chapter 4: Write When You Get Work: Completing an idea-some finer touches -- Whatever You're Making, Make it way Better than it has to be Made -- 95 Percent of all Advertising is Poorly Written. Don't add to the Pile -- Before you write anything, write the brand manifesto -- Get puns out of your system right away -- Don't just start writing headlines willy-nilly. Break it down. Do willy first. Then move on to nilly -- If the idea needs a headline, write 100 -- Save the operative part of the headline for the very end.

Never use fake names in a headline. (Or copy. Or anywhere else for that matter.) -- Don't let the headline flex any muscles when the visual is doing the heavy lifting -- When it's just a headline, it'd better be a pretty good headline -- Certain headlines are currently checked out. You may use them when they are returned -- Don't use a model number in the headline -- Writing Body Copy -- Writing well, rule #1: write well -- Write like you'd talk if you were the brand -- At the same time, remember to write like you talk -- Pretend you're writing a letter -- Before you start writing copy, have the basic structure of your argument in mind -- Don't have what they call a pre-ramble in your body copy -- Your body copy should reflect the overall concept of the idea -- Five rules for effective speechwriting from Winston Churchill -- "It's not fair to inflict your own style on a strategy." -- Eschew obfuscation -- Provide detail -- Once you lay your sentences down, spackle between the joints -- Break your copy into as many short paragraphs as you can -- When you're done writing the copy, read it aloud -- When you're done writing your body copy, go back and cut it by a third -- Proofread your own work -- If you have to have one, make your tagline an anthem -- A Few Notes on Design and one on Thinning the Herd -- Something has to dominate the ad -- Avoid trends in execution -- Develop a look no one else has -- Be objective -- Kill off the weak sister -- Always, always show babies or puppies -- What to do if You're Stuck -- First of all, being stuck is a good sign. Seriously -- If you're stuck, relax -- Leave the room and go work somewhere else -- Get off the stinkin' computer -- Ignore the little voice that says, "I'm just a hack on crack from Hackensack." -- Go to the store where they sell the stuff -- Ask your creative director for help.

Get more product information -- Go into it knowing-knowing-there's a chance you could fail -- Read an old Far Side collection by Gary Larson -- Go to a bookstore and page through books on your subject -- Sometimes it's good to work on three projects at once -- Don't burn up too much energy trying to make something work -- Be patient -- Learn to enjoy the process. Not just the finished piece -- Remember, you aren't saving lives -- Insanity, Office Politics, and Award Shows -- Identify your most productive working hours and use them for nothing but idea generation -- Quit wasting time reading e-mails and Facebook, wandering around the office, or coming in late -- "Be orderly in your normal life so you can be violent and original in your work." -- "Temper your Irish with German." -- Don't drink or do drugs -- Keep your eye on the ball, not on the players -- You are a member of a team -- You are not genetically superior to account executives -- Come to think of it, you're not genetically superior to anybody. Save the trash talk for basketball -- Stay in touch with the real world -- On the value of awards shows -- Chapter 5: Concepting for the Hive Mind: Creativity in analog and digital -- Brave New Marketing -- It's less about messaging and more about content -- It's less about ads and more about experiences -- It's less about talking to and more about talking with -- It's less about asking customers to listen and more about inviting them to talk -- It's less about trying to make people want stuff and more about making stuff people want -- The New Creative Person is T-Shaped -- Content is King -- What the New Ideas look like, Besides Cool -- The new ideas might not be "ads as we know them." -- The new ideas come from culture, not commerce -- The new ideas improve people's lives -- The new ideas are shareable and participatory.

The new ideas don't fill a media space.